After more than two weeks of rescue efforts at the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse site, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced that the mission has now shifted to a recovery operation.
“It is with deep, profound sadness that this afternoon I’m able to share that we made the extremely difficult decision to transition from operation search and rescue to recovery,” said Mayor Levine Cava.
Crews recovered 10 more bodies in the rubble by Wednesday, bringing the total number of victims found to 54, with 33 of them identified. There are over 80 people still unaccounted for.
Mayor Levine Cava got emotional as she told families to brace themselves for devastating news.
“Commitment to this mission is deeply personal. This is our community, our neighbors, our families– and our first responders have truly searched that pile every single day since the collapse as if they’re searching for their own loved ones,” the mayor said.
Emergency crews are working around the clock with rescue dogs and using state-of-the-art sound devices to comb through wreckage of the building in hope of finding survivors and victims.
